National Enterprise Systems issue

oh, and the first call i got from these people, they said "this is the district attorney's office". me being the gullible kid i am i believed them and panicked and agreed to everything they said. then i called back the number and it was their automated message machine saying they are NES, so then naturally i googled them to see whats up. is that against the law for them to lie?

also, i made a small payment of $100 when they first called (again because i was scared). so now they have my checking account information. so they can charge my account whenever they want? is that legal? how can i stop them from charging my account?

Welcome to the site, I had a in depth reply and somehow lost it when I went to post it. I need to get to bed so I'm going to make this one short.

Please stay off the phone, you have most likely validated the debt for them. The $100 payment you set reset the Date of Last Activity (DOLA) so they can most likely sue.

They cannot charge your account whenever they want but it's happened many times before.

Claiming to be the DA's office is beyond illegal, put it this way, if you had that recorded you'd probably not have to pay anything to settle this.

I'm sure you'll get some great advice shortly, it's late so it may not be until tomorrow. Just remember to stay off the phone and do not send any payment until you have some more replies here.

so i can't send a dv letter to them since i screwed up? i don't get how they can sue though, i mean, what grounds could they have for sueing? at first he said i was trying to fraud the government.

jump in the chatroom, faster to talk and I don't have much time.

You can always send a DV

First of all, what I would do is go to your bank and put a stop payment on that check, when the bank asks why you need to do this, tell them that you were threatened into making this payment and you think it is fraud. And then also have them block all other transaction from this company. Then when you get back home from putting a stop payment on that check get on the phone to your Department of Financial Institutions and file a claim. Tell them EVERYTHING word for word and if you can remember who you talked to. They will know if that company is even licensed to collect in your state. Make sure that you inform the DFI that they said that they were the DA's office. That is a no no and against the law. Have they sent you a letter in the mail yet? Because they are supposed to send you something in writing after they contact you for the first time. If you have ANY paperwork you need to send that in with your complaint to the DFI. I would also file complaints with the BBB. You can also contact your DA's office, I am sure they would LOVE to hear this CA is using their name to scare people into paying them. Also file a complaint with the FTC. This will all take some time but you NEED to file these complaints. The CA will probably end up sending the account back over to Citi after everyone comes down on them for what they have done. You can send a DV letter it can't hurt. But most of all if you get served those court papers, check with your clerk of courts to make sure that they have indeed filed suit against you. And if you do get served then make sure you respond to them in the time allowed. But as soon as you send a DV they have to stop all collections until it is validated.

bump to see if i can get any more insight i haven't heard yet.

Have you done what puddle suggested last night?

yea, i did the stop payment, i filed complaints with the ftc and dfi (ca). the CA called again today with more bogus stuff too. claiming to have 2 lawsuits in front of them ready to be filed. one, because it is illegal to send checks over $500 cross-state. two, a civil lawsuit saying i am refusing to pay or something, then they gave me some ID sf1139202, but i was thinking how can they have one if they never filed anything yet.

Either pic up a cheap digital recorder and record him after notifying him that you are doing so (CA is an all party must know state) or just tell him you are, I'd be willing to bet just about anything he won't make anymore threats.

I'd also send them a limited Cease & Desist letter certified mail return receipt (CMRRR), this will stop the verbal threats.

yea i forgot to record the call, but next time they do call i'll be sure to do just that. it'd be interesting to see how they react.

make sure you tell them at the start of the call that the call may be monitored or recorded--if you do not, then you have broken CA state law and the tape will not be admissable in court.

for legal reasons, should i say..

"this call is being monitored and recorded."

or

"this call may be monitored and recorded."

either one will be sufficient-the collection agencies all say "may be", and that satisfies the requirements of the law. It basically lets the other party know that they may be part of a recorded phone call, and their choice to stay on the line at that point is universally regarded as their consent to be recorded. If they say they do not want to be recorded but stay on the phone, I dont know what the law says there but I am pretty sure that you could argue that they were notified and chose to continue the call, so that should be consent enough.